Gilcreest into World Amateur final

Colm Gilcreest from Navan has reached the final of the IBSF World Amatuer Snooker final in Wels, Austria on Saturday night, winning his semi-final against Soheil Vahedi from Iran 7-5.

Colm plays Thepchaiya Un-Nooh from Thialand in Saturday's best of 21 frame final 10am.

Gilcreest, who is an ex-Irish champion and former Main Tour professional, is aiming to emulate the achievement of Ken Doherty by winning this World Amateur Title which is the biggest title in the sport outside the professional game.

The Meath man's reward if he wins is a place on the main professional tour joining Doherty, Ronnie O'Sullivan and the like next season.

Gilcreest has been in magnificent form in this event, coming through the group stages in first position and he took the No1 seeding for the knockout stages, also making the highest break of the tournament, a 142, along the way. In the quarter-final he beat Lee Page of England 5-2.

Ireland had three representatives in the Men's Championships; last year's Irish No 2 Brendan O'Donoghue from Nenagh, Irish No 3 Gilcreest and Martin McCrudden, the Irish No 4 from Celbridge.

It has been a magnificent tournament for the Irishmen as all three players qualified from their groups, O'Donoghue losing to the ex-World No 3 James Wattana in the last 32, and McCrudden narrowly going out to Soheil Vahedi from Iran in the quarter-final 6-5.

In the Masters event, Wexford's Joe Delaney and Galway's Ken Monroe qualified from their groups and both reached the quarter-finals before exiting on Saturday.

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